Preemie Growth Chart

A preemie growth chart will help you keep track of your early bird's progress as he develops and reaches milestones during the first few years of life.

The premature birth of a baby can be a difficult time for parents, especially if that child endures physical or mental challenges. A preemie growth chart is one way that parents can bring encouragement into the family, celebrating the physical development and personal victories of their special baby. A chart can also be helpful for doctor’s appointments, as it is much easier to keep track of specific questions and concerns on paper, than it is to attempt to commit it all to memory, which often fails you when you're in a medical office with countless thoughts going through your head. Finally, a chart can become a special keepsake, something you can show your preemie after he is an adult. It can work as a great self esteem boost when he needs to know how far he's come in life.

Just as there are many advantages to such a form of measurement, there is also a downfall. Every parent of a preemie learns that growth and development cannot be viewed as a competition. Your early arrival will almost always be smaller and slower than full term children who share his birth date, and sometimes preemies can even be behind schedule of other preemies. There is a wide range of what's considered to be "normal", and it's important to take that into account before getting too attached to any form of measurement. You do not want to create anything that will fuel discouragement rather than bring hope and a feeling of victory.

You may be given regular preemie growth charts by your doctor. If this is the case, chances are it will look almost like a high school geometry assignment with grids, lines, dots and angles. What you are seeing is the growth of your child compared to that of other children, both full term and early/small for size. The dots mark the various dates your baby is examined and followed up on. The curvy line that connects the dots shows the doctor (and parents) how the baby is progressing. A preemie who is growing in a healthy way will have a continuously upward climb of dots, eventually nearing very close to the line of full term babies his age. By their second birthday, many premature babies follow right in line with the "normal" child growth curve, and there is no longer any cause for concern.

If the dots fall or are sporadic in their placement, your doctor may recommend various treatments or schedule more frequent appointments to assess and keep tabs on baby's health and development.

You can also create your own chart at home. You can use a growth chart for many different purposes for outside of the above mentioned development marking. Especially if your baby is going to have a long hospital stay, you'll have many things to keep track of and learn to decipher. The website BabyLinq features many downloadable preemie growth charts, which can do everything from track your baby's height and weight, to convert grams to pounds for those families that are suddenly thrown into the universally used metric system when their child is born early.

If you prefer something even more homemade, you can create a colorful and simple growth chart and hang on the wall in the nursery. It should go lengthwise for when baby is small, and then can eventually be measured and hung vertically if you choose to continue use of the chart after your tiny miracle has become an active toddler. Are you the parent of older children? They may enjoy creating a special chart for their baby brother or sister, and it will often help them cope with their emotions of fear and helplessness when they see their smallest family member hooked up to machines and fighting for life.

A preemie growth chart can be further understood and utilized by visiting a baby-focused website such as Baby Center. You can also join various online support groups such as What to Expect if you are looking to find camaraderie with other parents of preemies during this difficult time of growing and waiting.

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